A few (ok the minority) of tabs has the strumming pattern written in it. Pretty self explanatory when you stumble upon the "v" and "|_|" kind of signs.

What helped me a lot was getting the constant rhythm in the strumming hand.For example when i play acoustic songs, I always move my strumming hand up and down in the rhythm. Even if i don't hit the strings, I constantly move my hand. This helps me to stay tight on the beat and the strumming feels more natural to me.That way you can screw around with different strumming patterns, too!

A few (ok the minority) of tabs has the strumming pattern written in it. Pretty self explanatory when you stumble upon the "v" and "|_|" kind of signs.

What helped me a lot was getting the constant rhythm in the strumming hand.For example when i play acoustic songs, I always move my strumming hand up and down in the rhythm. Even if i don't hit the strings, I constantly move my hand. This helps me to stay tight on the beat and the strumming feels more natural to me.That way you can screw around with different strumming patterns, too!

Same here. As long as I'm on beat I'm good to go, I don't care if I'm strumming up or down. On the other hand I find it very odd to strum in only one pattern (only down strokes or up strokes).